With two separate orders, the B.C. Supreme Court has settled the Selkirk First Nation’s mining royalties claim against Minto Metals and put the rest of the mine’s assets – including the mine itself – into the hands of a court-appointed receiver.

The Minto mine closed abruptly on May 12 and the owner of the site, Minto Metals Corp., abandoned the site the next day.

The July 24 order results from a settlement in a suit brought against the mining company by Sumitomo Canada Ltd.

The royalty payment is to be settled with the proceeds from the sale of $1.3 million US in ore concentrate and the court ordered PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) be appointed as receiver for the remaining assets at the mine.

The receiver will now have the ability to sell the mine property and any other assets to settle Minto’s debts.

Sumitomo sued because they claimed to have already paid for ore concentrate that was sitting in storage and had a deal to buy more when the mine went bust.

It is money from that extra unsold concentrate, which Sumitomo has now purchased, that is being used to pay the royalties.

Proceedings will now move to the Yukon Supreme Court, according to the order, where any other claims or liens will be dealt with by the receiver and the court.

A Thursday afternoon statement from the Yukon government says that, if possible, the mine would be sold to a single purchaser. They are also making plans for closure and reclamation of the site if need be.

According to court documents, the Selkirk First Nation had already received $731,000 in pre-payments, so the settlement pays the rest of the roughly $2.5 million in royalties the government claimed were owed by Minto Metals in royalties.

“Monday’s court decisions provide legal clarity to support long-term planning for Minto mine,” Energy, Mines and Resources Minister John Streicker said in the statement.

“We believe it is a good outcome for the Selkirk First Nation and the Yukon, particularly as it relates to unpaid royalties.”

Many of the contractors working at the site, along with Yukon Energy and the Yukon Workers’ Safety and Compensation Board, have filed liens in court claiming Minto Metals owes them money.

The total combined amount of liens filed is $42.2 million.

Once Minto abandoned the mine, the government immediately hired one of the contractors at the site to take over environmental management to make sure contaminated water didn’t spill out into the surrounding environment.

After the mine closed, the suit was filed by Sumitomo in their home province of B.C. asking for a receiver to be appointed to get the concentrate they claimed to be owed.

This initial limited receivership was granted on June 29.

The concentrate was removed from the mine site between July 3 and July 12 and Sumitomo paid PWC for the extra ore on July 13, according to court documents.

The payment of royalties take priority over the liens, so claimants will have to wait to try to get paid through the new receivership.

At this point, no parties that have filed liens are guaranteed to get any or all of the money they claim to be owed.

The order states that the Yukon Supreme Court will now decide the “validity, priority and amount of the claims of any persons asserting liens.”

Meanwhile, the government has a security fund of about $75 million set aside to pay for environmental reclamation at the site. This money is collected by the government from mines in case they go bust – like in this situation.

The settlement is clear that no receivership activities will take precedence over the government’s regulatory activity at the site, which includes their environmental protection efforts.

“While we acknowledge the possibility of the mine reopening at some stage in the future, our immediate priority remains ensuring that the environment is protected,” Streicker’s statement says.

When the mine was abandoned, the government had been seeking to increase the security fund. It had been working with Minto Metals to allow them to fix up certain infrastructure in lieu of paying more into the fund as the company was struggling financially.

The vice-president of one of the contractors working at the site – who has a lien claiming Minto owes them over $5.2 million – told the Star earlier this month that many contractors were working without being paid, as they understood a private investor was nearing a deal to provide extra financing for the site.

“There was a real willingness to keep the thing going,” said Jon Rudolph, vice-president in charge of operations at Cobalt Construction.

“They had some financing arranged that looked imminent, but at the end of the day it didn’t materialize.”

Streicker told the Star at the same time that the government was aware of Minto Metals’ financial situation, but the government’s priority remained the protection of the environment.

“Our belief as a government is that if there is a mining industry in the Yukon, it has to respect First Nations governments, it has to respect communities and support our communities, it has to respect the environment,” Streicker said in early July.

“We’re just not interested in mining if it doesn’t do those things.”